Celebrities should ignore and block online trolls so their abusive views aren’t spread to other people, according to an anti-hate group.

Stars including Gary Lineker and comedian Aisling Bea are backing a new guide on how to deal with abuse.

The report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate says trolls aim to “generate outrage” and spread “misinformation” by targeting stars.

It suggests turning off notifications and taking time off social media.

What is a troll?

The idea of a troll as a “young person taking pleasure in sending malicious abuse from a laptop in their bedroom – is, at best, a half-truth”, the report says.

Trolls self-define as people who believe “nothing should be taken seriously” and “like to disrupt stupid conversations on the Internet” for “lulz”, according to This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things author Whitney Phillips.

She says they find amusement from another person’s anger.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate report focused specifically on political trolls with extremist ideologies that “vary considerably”.

It’s a new think tank which is part funded by Unbound Philanthropy – another think tank that helps immigrants and refugees integrate in their new countries.

Their strategy is to draw a response from public figures, according to the research.

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“Troll propagandists know that when public figures engage with abusive trolls to defend their reputation or their values – a normal behavioural response – this inadvertently spreads and legitimates the trolls’ message and tricks social media algorithms into pushing it into a broader array of users’ timelines.”

It used MP David Lammy as an example of this happening.

A tweet quoted by the Labour politician to his 560,000 followers increased the troll’s popularity by 14%.

Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption It’s a natural response to want to defend yourself, but the reports suggests that is counter-productive

Don’t feed the trolls

The report suggests that trolls attack in groups, coordinating activities to “isolate” and “mass-assault” a public figure to bait them into responding.

“It is crucial to remember that troll propagandists are not seeking to enter an honest debate,” say the report’s authors Imran Ahmed and Dr Linda Papadopoulos.

The guide contains advice on what to do if none the above helps, including taking screenshots of any abuse that might be defamatory or incites violence, reporting posts to the social media company or potentially the police, and asking for help from anti-hate organisations.

The report also recommends the media avoid “amplifying hate” by writing up trending hashtags that are a “stunt” by trolls.

“Plucking tweets out of the Twittersphere to back up an argument that there was “outrage” about a public figure is easy enough, but it can amplify the worst kinds of voices,” it says.

And it adds that social media companies need to work better with anti-hate experts and mental health organisations, to “fundamentally rethink how they adjust their systems to deal with existing and emerging troll tactics”.